Whilst I’m posting customisations, here’s my new desktop. Must play with it some more, but now I need to get to bed.
Edit: Here’s the updated one. Rainmeter with a modified 10-Foot HUD skin, and a custom skin that shows random quotes from a text file. Font is Eras Light ITC.
Just realised I never posted my facebook profile hack here. Done a) because I was bored, and b) because I hated having my photos up the top. Anyway I think it turned out pretty well.
Been browsing stock photos (yes, I know, hardly the coolest thing to be doing on a Friday night). There seems to be an entire bizarre sub-genre of businessmen riding things:
Also: best cloud ever!
And yes, this is precisely what Internet shopping looks like:
The new laptop arrived on Tuesday, and it’s brilliant. Dual core processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard disk – these might not be all that impressive, but after the five year old laptop I was stuck with it runs like a dream to me. And nevermind the specs, my favourite thing about it is that it’s so quiet. I can barely hear the fan at all, so it’s great for watching DVDs – and even the built in speakers aren’t bad for a laptop. The big sharp screen is actually making me wish I’d shelled out for a Blu-Ray model though – and I’ve always been cynical about Blu-Ray!
Of course like the big geek that I am, I’ve been playing with my new toy every chance I get. One of the things I wanted to try, which I wouldn’t even have attempted on the old one, is some POV-Ray. Anyway I had a bit of a bash at it tonight, and it’s surprisingly easy to get nice looking results. Here’s something I whipped up and am using as a new desktop (click to see it full size).
Ok, I’m going a bit crazy. Trying to follow the Election on BBC, b3ta, Twitter and Wikinews IRC all at the same time, and still feeling bad for missing C4′s alternative coverage – Charlie Brooker, David Mitchell, Lauren Laverne and Jimmy Carr? That’s an awesome lineup.
Anyway, with all that I’m dead tired, and there’s only been 3 seats declared as I write this. I need a slow down before heading to bed, and remembered that I haven’t updated this blog in far too long.
And I do actually have news: I *finally* got a job offer, and though I’m really looking forward to starting, I need to move (up to the Lake District!) and there is loads to sort out in a short time. So the whole day has been rather hectic, especially as my Cantab email has decided to stop working at the most inopportune moment.
So, yeah. That’s an update of sorts. Now I am going to try and get some sleep.
And now, an unordered list of tidbits from the past week or so.
Exhibit displacement has also resulted in a lone ZX Spectrum with “Horace Goes Skiing” appearing in the Power Hall, amidst the hulking steam engines. Very surreal.Conspiracy theories? On the Internet? Who’da thunk it?
But this time it’s different. These theories cut deep. They challenge our firmest beliefs, one of the very foundation stones of our society.
Ladies and gentleman, Andrew W.K. *may* not be “real”
http://www.metafilter.com/87905/Its-Time-To-Party
https://twitter.com/AndrewWK
*fnord*
Ever since I heard about Twitter, and even since I joined it, I’ve been wondering just what it is FOR, and why it is so popular and fun. And today I think I figured it out. It’s global MST3K.
Of course that’s only part of the story. It was designed to update family and friends on your life, and many still use it for that (as well as celebrities updating their fans). And it provides an alternative to email for sharing news/links. And of course there are the spammers and self-promoters.
But, just look at the trending topics. When X-factor was on earlier, it was almost entirely X-factor related tweets. Thousands upon thousands of jokes, comments, riffs, all delivered in real time, supplementing the show itself. Or the Peep Show characters – that turned out to be a fan, watching the show and throwing out more jokes in sync with what was happening on screen.
It’s not just limited to TV of course. Riffing of bad movies is popular obviously, but there’s also people’s experience of technology (Windows 7, Google Wave) and current events (Balloon Boy!). Sure, commentary, satire and parody always happened before, but never at this breakneck real-time pace. Except in things like MST3K.
I think I may have found the finest example of a Youtube comment thread. On the video for ever controversial comic Frankie Boyle’s Most Offensive Jokes (of course, a hilarious video in itself) the following exchange takes place:
MrHeadingley (-9)
Please somebody write something on here which pertains to English. I am skimming Frankie’s videos and am yet to find an intelligent statement from anyone, or from Frankie himself. Frankie Boyle is full of comments for other people: straightforward insults that were funny for about 7 people back in 1976. He laughs at his own jokes and looks painfully nervous; he tries to dominate everything and repeats almost every joke night after night in his stand up. Val Doonican was more entertaining.truemansparks (+1)
Dear Mr headingley the impression i get from your comments makes me think that you are nothing more than a vile turd chewing pile of putrid lizard excrement with the mental capacity of a slow worm on pot,so shut the fuck up you disgusting necrophiliac baboon felcher!p.s how dare you drag Val Doonnican into this his live shows were fucking blistering !!MrHeadingley (0)
truemansparks,
Only one ‘n’ in the middle of Doonican
It helps that the middle comment was the first I saw, which made the sudden leap from foul-mouthed invective to a passionate defence of Val Doonican all the more entertaining. And MrHeadingley’s comeback is exquisite.
